Changes to the licensing system have been made in V9, and users may now need to activate their license keys in order to use the licensed features. Please note that activation is not a replacement for your responsibility to manage your license use, and all licenses still retain their user limit. The onus is on account holders to keep track of their users and ensure that the license is not surpassing its user limit.
Licenses purchased from a reseller operate as they did previously, with the issuing of a reseller activation code that will generate a full-length serial key when it's used. These serial keys will then need to be activated in the software in order to associate the key with the device. Please note that when you're activating the code you must use the same email address to which the activation code is registered.
When V9 products are installed your license keys should be checked for activation. If any keys are not yet activated then the following banner will appear:
If you have a V8 license key, please see here for any questions you may have about changes to the licensing system.
Click the Activate License keys button to open the activation dialog box, where you can choose to proceed with online or offline activation. This process will register your device to your license key. If you need to migrate to a new device subsequently, then you will need to first deregister the previous device, as detailed below.
Further information about the options for activation is available below:
This is the simplest and fastest way to activate your license key. All you need to do is click Activate via Internet in the activation dialog box, as detailed above.
The software will then connect to our servers, and authenticate your license key.
Note that the PDF-XChange products will check periodically with the server to ensure that you have not blocked the device from using the license.
If you experience any issues with this process then please review the error messages section below, and if you still cannot resolve the issue then contact support@pdf-xchange.com for assistance.
This method is intended for devices that do not have an internet connection. Click Activate Manually (Offline) in the activation dialog box to use this option. The offline activation dialog box will open:
Follow the steps and save the file to a portable drive, then bring it to a device that has an internet connection, sign into your account page and click Offline Serial Key Activation:
Click the Upload File button to exchange your ‘Activation.request’ file for an "Activation.response" file that you can load in step three of the offline activation process via the offline activation dialog box.
The changes in our licensing setup necessitated some related changes in the account pages, including the Offline Serial Key Activation section (detailed above) and the Activation List in the Your Products & Serial Keys tab:
Click this button to view your license key activations, the date of each activation, and the name of the device with which the activation is associated:
You can also use this dialog box to deregister or block devices as desired.
Blocking prevents the device from being registered again. Deregistering prevents the device from automatically re-authenticating, and is intended for use when you want to remove a machine from your license key in order to free up a slot for a different machine.
Note that our servers check periodically to ensure that activated devices are permitted on license keys. If you deregister/block a device, and a user continues to use the key on that device, they will receive demo watermarks on their documents when they use licensed features.
Key Does Not Exist
This error message appears when an invalid key has been entered:
You can copy and paste the key from your account page to ensure it doesn't contain any mistakes.
Activation Attempt Exceeds License Limit
This error message means that you are attempting to activate the license key after the number of permitted activations for the key has already been reached. If you need to activate the key on additional devices then you will need to add seats to your license, which you can do via your account page.
Other Errors
If you encounter any other error messages, and you are unable to resolve the issue, then please email support@pdf-xchange.com with a screenshot of the message. We will get back to you and resolve the issue as soon as possible.
You can contact us by phone, email or our social media accounts — we are here to assist you.